Piano Man (episode)
|alt-title = |image = QL_episode_3x15_-_Piano_Man_November_10_1985.jpg |image-size = 250px |image-caption = Sam, as piano player Chuck Danner, is on the run from a killer with an ex-girlfriend (Marietta DePrima) in "Piano Man" in Season 3. |season-epno = 15 |season = 3 |broadcastdate = March 27, 1991 |network = NBC-TV |imdb = tt0681151 |teleplay = |story = |writer = |director = |leap-date = November 10, 1985 |place = Tularosa, New Mexico |leapee = Joey DeNardo / Chuck Danner) |prev = " " |next = " " }} Piano Man was the 15th episode of Season 3 of Quantum Leap, also the 46th overall series episode. Written by Ed Scharlach, the episode, which was directed by James Whitmore, Jr., originally aired on NBC-TV on March 27, 1991. Synopsis Sam is a piano player who is on the run from a killer with an ex-girlfriend. Summary Sam leaps into a man in the middle of a piano gig and is almost immediately accosted by a teary blonde woman that he doesn't know and isn't sure actually knows him. He soon discovers that she tracked him down because they had an act together and had been dating until three years ago when he up and vanishes on her. She's engaged but her concerned fiancé wants to make sure that she has no unresolved feelings for her ex (which she does) so she tracks him down to find some closure. Ziggy can't find any information on Sam's host Chuck Danner but they get a lucky break when Lorraine (Marietta DePrima) mentions that he changed his name and Sam gets her to reveal what his real name is: Joey DeNardo (leapee played by Sam Clay). He left because he witnessed one of his old friends murder another one of them (both of them having joined the mob) and if he stayed then he'd have been killed. Still trying to find his bearings, Sam absently lets the bartender at the club take his car so he can take a girl home with him but the car blows up once they start the ignition. Now aware that whoever wants to kill Joey is hot on the trail, Sam and Lorraine flee in her car. Lorraine is revealed to be quite accident-prone and they run out of gas right when the man out to kill them is gaining on them. Fortunately, they are able to hide the car in a ditch in time and the next morning get some gas from some passing cowboys. They bond a little over the piano and Lorraine lets her fiancé know that she's okay. He wants her to leave when he hears about the danger that she's in but she refuses to go until she knows that Joey is okay and the sheriff gets there. Al shows up just in time to warn Sam that Nicky's people get to the diner before the sheriff does and so Lorraine and Sam leave again. The car gets a flat tire and the spare is unfortunately flat as well so they take the car somewhere to buy a spare tire. Al convinces Sam that the only chance he has of surviving is to ditch Lorraine since she is causing all of their escape problems and all of her last several boyfriends died under bizarre circumstances. She refuses to leave for her own protection and so Sam has to reluctantly break her heart by telling her he doesn't want her around. Angrily, Lorraine returns home but Al and Sam's relief is short-lived when they discover that though Joey lives, Lorraine soon dies. Sam steals a car to chase after her but, running out of time, hits a fork in the road. Sam ignores the probabilities to go with his gut and arrives just in time to tell the frightened Lorraine that the reason her suddenly frantic fiancé is now so obsessed with Joey is because he's actually Nicky and has been using her to track Joey down. Sam gets the upper hand on Nicky but Nicky manages to taunt Lorraine into coming closer and he captures her and threatens to break her neck unless Sam hands over his gun and the gun that he took from Nicky. Left with little choice, Sam does so but then Lorraine tugs on a chain and a heavy piece of machinery comes tumbling down and kills Nicky. This leaves Joey and Lorraine free to move to Hawaii and continue their act up until the present. Music *Feelings *Somewhere In The Night *Footloose Trivia * Billy Joel released a song of the same name in 1973. Category:Episodes Category:Season Three